Improving relevant information for local fire management strategies in Africa

Local management of fires is an important issue in Africa. Satellite data such as NOAA-AVHRR have been extensively used to monitor fire activities and impacts at a global scale, as well as in real-time at local scales. New features of the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite include a 1.6 mum channel, 15 minutes temporal resolution, accurate gee-location, multiple illumination angles. These features provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the fire related information provided, such as vegetation moisture assessment (fire risk), active fire detection and burned areas. In collaboration with African departments, the proposed project will adapt existing active fire detection and burned area detection techniques, and assess and document the resulting information. The aim is to determine recommendations on the use of MSG data for local fire management units.